Sunday, February 17, 2013

This 2 minute 39 second video is the official trailer for the upcoming documentary, “Finding Vivian Maier.” It tells the story of one of the greatest photography finds in recent history, and of the brilliant work of a photographer no one had heard of just a decade ago.

In case you’ve been out of the loop on this story, here’s a brief overview. In 2007, Chicago historian John Maloof purchased a box of 30,000 prints and negatives that was sold by a storage locker, and then another lot from a fellow buyer at the same auction.

It was the work of previously unknown amateur street photographer Vivian Dorothea Maier, who worked for forty years as a nanny in Chicago. She passed away in 2009, but had compiled a body of work that weighed in at roughly 100,000 images.

After the images started being shown to the public, people discovered that the work was of the same caliber as many of the biggest names in photography. Due to the critical acclaim, the work was very quickly picked up by media outlets and also exhibited in countries around the world. In 2011, Maloof published a book on Maier’s work, titled, “Vivian Maier: Street Photographer.”

As excitement over Maier’s photography grows, Maloof is finding himself with an increasingly valuable mountain of images on his hands. He currently owns 100,000-150,000 negatives, 3,000+ vintage prints, hundreds of rolls of film, audio interviews Maier gave, original Maier cameras, and various documents.

In all, he personally owns roughly 90% of the Maier’s lifetime work. Imagine how much the collection may one day be worth if Maier’s name becomes remembered as one of the greats of American street photography.

You can view many of Maier’s photos over on the official website that was created for her after the discovery of her images.